Transition Edinburgh University
CCF Funded Project
Phase 2 Final Report
www.teu.org.uk April 2011 Table of Contents
Introduction and aims...... 3 Summary of achievements against aims ...... 4 Detailed successes and Achievements ...... 7 Community Outcomes...... 17 CO 2e Emissions Reduction ...... 21 Other Social, Economic and Environmental impacts ...... 23 Legacy of the project...... 23 Appendix A Outreach and Events, April 2011...... 25 Appendix B Staff Engagement ...... 40
Introduction and aims Background Transition Edinburgh University (TEU) is a student and staff initiative to tackle Climate Change and Peak Oil through practical action research projects. It draws on a Transition model of community based, grass-roots response to this dual challenge, seeking to build resilience and capacity against the coming shocks at the University. The project is one component of the response to the challenge set by the 10:10 campaign – to which the University and the Students Association signed up on 1st September. Since TEU’s inception in October 2008 we have organised awareness- raising events including film showings, visits to local projects and engaged with Transition initiatives in the city and beyond. We continue to meet regularly and all are invited to attend. TEU is supported by Edinburgh University People & Planet Society and the University Energy and Sustainability Office.
Feasibility Study undertaken June – September 2009 Our Feasibility Study, supported by the Scottish Government’s £27m Climate Challenge Fund (CCF), employed five part-time interns over the summer to scope a larger engagement model for the whole community of 26,000 students and 10,000 staff across the University. The first aim was to calculate a baseline Carbon Footprint for the whole University community – including emissions from the University estate and those from home and lifestyle such as leisure travel. The outcomes of this work were launched at an event on 1st October 2009, and are published on-line www.teu.org.uk/resources. Preliminary results of our University Carbon Footprint study This diagram represents an estimate of where the carbon emissions come from in the 36,000 students and staff in the University community. It should be stressed that a number of figures – such as those for leisure travel – are based on UK-averages whilst others – such as those for University-owned building use – are measured usage data. Note the particularly large proportions from domestic gas and electricity usage (home residences) and leisure travel. Total estimated Carbon Footprint of the community is 335,000 tCO2e/year. Reducing this is a real challenge for the University as an institution and for our community.
The second aim was to identify collaborative action research projects which can be run as part of a 16-month, CCF-funded Phase 2 Campus Community Carbon Crash programme. A summary of the successful bid is provided below.
Summary of our Phase 2 project bid to the Climate Challenge Fund Transition Edinburgh University aims to cut the personal emissions from the 36,000 students and staff in response to the challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil. Our Climate Challenge Funded feasibility study estimated a carbon footprint of 335,000 tCO2e, for the whole University community – 85% (285,000 tonnes) of which comes from students' and staff homes, travel habits, consumables and leisure. The Campus Community Carbon Crash was designed to cut these “lifestyle” emissions through action research with extra-curricular peer learning programmes linking the practical projects. These include:
1. Cut residential energy use on a “Saving Rooms” programme and inter-halls competition 2. Reduce waste and unnecessary consumption of stuff by recycling via student Free-Shop 3. Trim carbon emissions through personal Travel and Food Choices 4. Encourage new business innovation in a “Green Dragons Den” competition 5. Shrink emissions via peer-learning programmes exploring behaviour change and 6. Promote change through public events and two campus-wide Go Green weeks.
We have written up what worked best about this programme and are publishing it for use by Universities and Colleges and other communities across the country. Our project has generated social and environmental benefits, in addition to direct and indirect emissions cuts.
Summary of achievements TEU has deployed 6 practical programmes through an extensive range of events and a face to face engagement strategy.
The Big Green Makeover (BGM) programme has recruited 90 volunteers, who attended training on energy efficiency, motivational interviewing and the project’s practicalities. Over 50 homes have been visited, 30 energy advice clinics held, and 70 University Resident Assistants (RAs) have carried out visits using BGM techniques to University self-catered flats, helping to eliminate over 300 tonnes CO2e in total. The Energy advice clinics were run jointly by staff and project volunteers, hosted around the campus. We have held 110 personal consultations and had a further 195 more informal conversations with students and staff about saving energy at home. These activities have resulted in a reduction of over 300 tonnes CO2e in total. A partnership with the Student Association’s (EUSA) Advice Place, yielded joint stalls during Money Week, and co-hosted a stall in February with EUSA’s new volunteering centre.
Working in close partnership with Accommodation services, our Big Switch programme at the first years’ halls (Pollock Halls) has yielded savings of 120 tonnes of CO2e in electricity usage, with 577 first year students signed up to participate in reducing energy use. Over 800 students engaged with events ranging from after dinner green quizzes to film making and more traditional stalls. The hugely successful Freeshop reuse project collected over 7 tonnes of items in spring and redistributed them an event in September attended by over 1000 students, saving over 70 tonnes CO2e.
At Blacket Avenue – university accommodation for families – a small community revolution has emerged as a result of our planting days. The new Garden Committee planned a series of workshops on composting and gardening for the residents plus an orchard planting day.
The Green Dragon’s Den was changed to become an ideas competition to fully integrated into the Sustainability offerings of Edinburgh University. TEU has supported the Sustainability office and EUSA in their support of teams who are participating in this award scheme.
TEU has trained 42 Carbon Conversations (CC) facilitators plus 20 people from across Scotland. 25 groups have been held and a total of 181 people have been involved in CCs saving to date an average of 3.2 tonnes CO2e per person (578 tonnes in total) with pledges on average of 4.8 tonnes per person for the next year. Follow-up training for facilitators was regularly scheduled. Several academic staff groups have participated: Accommodation Services (managing accommodation for 2000 students); the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships; and the Institute for Advanced Studies. The course is now offered as part of the Access and New Horizons programmes from the Office of Life Long Learning.
We have received very encouraging feedback from the participating staff groups pointing to the significance of the legacy of the programme. The learning that occurs has a significant impact on permanent staff members' attitudes towards low-carbon changes. The Institute for Academic Development (at the University of Edinburgh) will include the course in their prospectus.
The Food Pledge launched in October has been signed by 273 people, with a reduction of 277 tonnes of CO2e. 90% of these pledges were signed at face-to-face engagement opportunities, accompanied by conversations with the Transition team and volunteers regarding food choices. We have engaged with around 30 people at each weekly local organic vegetable bag sale who want to sign the pledge, which also increases our mailing list. A total of 9 food skills engagement workshops were held, with an attendance of over 155 people in total.
Along with significant grass roots work, the Food working group collaborated with the catering outlet for the 2000 students at Pollock halls of residence: hosted meetings, one meat-free day, and 10 first year students completed a film project about food waste at halls (in collaboration with the Film Making Society).
The travel pledge asks people to commit to avoiding x number of flights and to look at the alternatives, learn more about local destinations and get engaged in the issues. 244 people have signed the pledge, with direct carbon savings from avoided flights of 145 tonnes. However, the indirect impacts are potentially much richer, but harder to quantify. Everyone who signed the pledge was sent our resource booklet, the Infrequent Flyer’s Pocket Companion. Online here: http://www.peopleandplanet.org/dl/goinggreener/resources/infrequentflyersguide.pdf The pledgers received a monthly e-newsletter, packed with tips, news and events related to low-carbon travel options. The travel programme is the recipient of a People and Planet Going Greener award.
We have been asked to create a “Sustainable Researcher” brochure for Vitae, a higher education resource. 20 people attended a research evening in November; and 15 people in February. Our project has become a research subject for several papers at first degree, masters and PhD levels.
Our events have created and expanded the Transition Edinburgh University community over the past sixteen months. Over 4,100 people have signed up and we held over 100 events. We have talked to over 14,000 people. Grassroots Climate Exchange, the universities and colleges practical action conference, held 18/19 March had 90 attendants each days, and was held in partnership with 16 other groups. The engagement team has attended 62 non TEU events and delivered 61 short talks, guest lectures, and seminar presentations across the University. Our monthly and weekly newsletters reach over 1450 people. We have engaged over 300 staff members who then recommend our programmes to their students.
Our website gives information and signup access to our programmes and events. It has registered 35,503 hits, 56% of them new visits. Please see our website for photos and community members’ blogs.
One of our most effective approaches has been encouraging key volunteers to take leadership roles for smaller projects. We have developed volunteering briefs to circulate across the University in outlets such as EUSA's Volunteer Shop and the University Career's service. There are currently over 160 volunteers engaged in various activities. Linking with the Student Association’s volunteering centre has broadened the motivations for volunteers taking part. Detailed successes and Achievements Outreach / Events Members of the TEU community attended and spoke at the People and Planet 2010 Summer Gathering, Transition Network Conference and NUS UK National Gathering; experiences gained were documented and shared. TEU has worked with and assisted Strathclyde University, Transition Forres, the Scottish Parliament, NUS and Transition Support Scotland and works closely with Transition Edinburgh South, Whitmuir Organic Farm, the Woodcraft Folk, Abundance Edinburgh, the Grassmarket project and many student societies, amongst which: Dirty Weekenders, the Allotment society, the Permaculture society, the Business society, the Carbon Management Society, and the Film society. In collaboration with EUSA 41 separate events were run during Our Sustainability Week in 2010, total attendance was 4000 of which at least 700 attended events related to sustainaiblity. TEU brought the Hard Rain Exhibition to Edinburgh during the 2010 Fringe Festival and into September. Over 230 people attended the connected talk by the photographer Mark Edwards. Several themed handprint socials attracted 85 attendees. The Harvest Festival held in October was attended by 185 people and a very successful Winter Feast was attended by 120 in December 2010, where feasters tucked into a delicious, low-carbon, organic spread. During July 2010 members of the wider TEU community attended the People and Planet Summer Gathering and the Transition Network Conference. Attendees wrote blogs of their experiences and shared interactively with the wider team in September. A Catalogue of Ideas web tool has been developed and is hosted by People and Planet to ensure longevity. We have also been working with Transition Support Scotland and the NUS to ensure this tool fits into a wider context. TEU helped with the Scottish Parliament’s Carbon Footprinting day. The team participated in the Transition Support Scotland National Gathering held at Pollock Halls on 19 November and hosted workshops at the weekend conference held at Pollock which brought together community activists from all over UK and further afield interested in Transition Initiatives. Our finale event, a universities and colleges practical action conference, “Grassroots Climate Exchange”. The event, organised with the support and collaboration of numerous other community and nation groups, was held on 18 and 19 March. We are also participated in the ground breaking student-run academic-focused event “Edinburgh Climate Conference”, which will bring academics and students together to discuss different approaches to climate change at the University on the last weekend of February. Nonetheless, Transition has been supporting smaller collaborative events with other groups over this time as follows: Waste and Consumption Event: “Let's Have a Rubbish Evening” with People & Planet Society On November 22nd People & Planet Society and the Transition Arts Group, as part of Buy Nothing Day, Buy Rights Week and EU Waste Action Week, ran a range of workshops to get creative and think of new ways to use our waste. 60 people came attended and got down and dirty with what would normally have been cast away without a thought. A fantastic group of volunteers from the Fairtrade café, People & Planet, Abundance Society and Transition put on an organic low-carbon food feast to celebrate the festive season. “How Green is Your Organisation” event with University of Edinburgh Business Society Transition has long been looking for ways to engage with non-environmentally focused student societies, and we are proud to have nurtured a productive relationship with the respected Business Society. With them we co-organised an evening of discussion on local businesses and social enterprises and their efforts to become low-CO2. 35 people attended, almost all who had never been to a Transition event before, and the Business Society had already offered to work with Transition more in the future to engage the students and staff in the faculty. Please see Appendix A for detailed reviews of events Communications and Engagement We researched and created a staff engagement proposal. See Appendix B. We followed this with a Handprint Social specifically for staff to test our ideas. We then finalised plans for staff “roadshow” taking our “products and services” to staff coffee rooms. By July 2010 we had introduced blogging to our website, finalised a plan for a face to face engagement team, designed a more interactive website, a created a short promotional video. www.teu.org/kiss We produced monthly and weekly newsletters for which over 1500 people have signed up. We’ve presented the project in lectures in over 60 related courses, since September. We have contacted over 1700 staff, 300 face to face and established longer term relationships with most. Work done to evaluate our effectiveness has yielded that the face to face engagement done by the engagement team is 6 times more cost effective than flyers and posters. We have presented our project to the Estates and Buildings monthly briefings, which was recorded, http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/resources-for-other-groups/ and given a lecture in the Centre for the study of Environmental Change and Sustainability (CECS) lecture series on campus. Our website has been updated to give more access to our programmes and events. We’ve held 15 Coffee Mornings for staff taking our “products and services” to building lobbies / staff coffee rooms and signing up 156 people who want to remain involved. We’ve produced informational postcards for Carbon Conversations, Big Green Makeover, the Food programme and the Travel Pledge and a general one for all of the projects for the engagement team to hand out. Our website gives information and signup access to our programmes and events. It has registered 35,503 hits, 56% of them new visits.
Ideas Competition (formerly Green Dragons’ Den) We formed a partnership with the student’s association, EUSA, who are running an Impacts Awards accreditation scheme that will recognise and reward pro- environmental behaviours across the University. The Ideas competition will be a part of the Impacts Awards and will run as a programme during the 2010-2011 academic year. The competition was launched during Our Impact Week and one of the prizes is a year’s supply of Mackie’s Organic Ice Cream, with the university offering to fund the rollout across the University of the winning idea. Teams are invited to submit ideas for practical ways staff and students can reduce their individual carbon footprints. There will be personal prizes for ideas short-listed and one for the overall winning idea. Ideas will be evaluated for: carbon savings calculated; awareness raising capacity; ease of replication in other departments and outside the University.
Big Green Makeover Early on we extended the Big Green Makeover to staff, where the pilots had been held only in student flats. We ran two trainings for 90 volunteers and a separate training for 70 Resident Assistants from Accommodation services. Each pair of volunteers does 3 home visits to each home registered with us. Please see the sample questionnaires and “Shopping List” sent out by the team to each flat In addition to the non-University accommodation, we have rolled out a simplified format for Resident Assistants to use across self catering accommodation that focuses on behaviours and habits. We have mechanisms to record and measure results from the home visits. We have also rolled out questionnaires to the University resident assistants to use in their visits to 600 University flats. A tool to record the behaviours witnessed at each of three visits and to measure reductions has been created. 39 advice clinics have been hosted around campus, run jointly by staff and the project’s volunteers, including experts form the Carbon Society. We have held 116 personal consultations, and had a further 222 more informal conversations about what students and staff can do to save energy. A stronger partnership has developed with the Student Association’s (EUSA) Advice Place, manifested in joint stalls during Money Week, with plans to co-host more stalls in February along with EUSA’s new volunteering centre. Four volunteer support sessions have been hosted during the semester to support volunteers visiting students and staff in their homes. Much more emphasis has been placed on tracking progress of Home Visits to ensure they were completed on time, including weekly phone calls by the Volunteer Support intern
Big Switch (formerly Pollock Carbon Challenge) This section of the project aimed to make Pollock Halls of Residence a ‘green hub’ for the 2000 first year students who reside there. Focussing on this catered, university accommodation has been highly rewarding for many sections of the overall TEU project. As the year has progressed, more and more of our activities have benefitted from engagement with students at Pollock Halls. The focus has always been energy saving, but food, travel, waste and carbon conversations activities have all had a presence and for this reason, the ambition of a green hub has been realised. Energy competition Based on a pilot energy competition in November-December 2009, we committed to run an inter-halls energy competition in the 2010/11 academic year. We signed up to a ‘franchise agreement’ with the national campaign ‘Student Switch Off’ and received branding graphics, advice and materials. In Freshers’ Week, we signed up 200 students as energy champions at a freshers’ fair event. Dressed as lycra-glad Eco Power Rangers, we distributed branded canvas bags and energy saving advice. We conducted a session on energy saving training for 60 residents assistants (students employed by the university) to enable them to advise the thousands of students on their sites During the two semesters, we held regular events to promote energy saving, engage students and encourage student involvement in TEU activities. Every two weeks, a stall was held at the entrance to the dinner hall, which 2000 students pass through every evening. We have spoken to over 800 students and 577 actively signed up to be involved in the energy saving campaign and be updated via email. We’ve held five green quizzes after dinner at the JMCC at Pollock Halls. These have been very successful, with a regular round of green questions and eco-prizes for the winners. The most effective engagement has been during the breaks between rounds, when face-to-face chats about energy saving have resulted in an upsurge in understanding. We’ve also organised a number of film screenings, including of the ‘Age of Stupid’ to mark 10:10:10 day (10 th October 2010) We held a photo competition, with hundreds of photos of students in ‘energy-saving poses’ uploaded to Facebook. Around 70 students permanently signed up to the Facebook group. We tried different approaches to engagement. Most recently, we focussed on just one house block (Grant House) and held an energy stall and evening party in the common room with a bicycle-powered smoothie maker. Around 60 students attended
Outcomes A direct comparison between meter readings in the same periods in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 academic years show a kilowatt hour reduction in usage equivalent to carbon savings of 120 tonnes. On a house by house basis, per student usage of electricity is consistently lower in all but a couple of houses, despite the cold and snowy winter.
Challenges All involved have recognised the technical challenges associated with collecting and analysing the energy data. Proving a causal relationship between our activities and lower electricity usage is not an easy task, but we are confident that we have played a major role in changing behaviour.
Freeshop The ‘freeshop’ reuse project was, by all accounts, a huge success. On a series of dates in May and June 2010, a vast quantity of reusable items were collected from departing students in university accommodation and sorted by volunteers. 20 student volunteers took part in the operation, as well as 5 university staff. 7 tonnes of waste was collected from a pool of 4000 departing students and diverted from landfill. Photos of the mammoth sorting process are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transitioneduni/sets/72157624425468694/ The duvets and electricals were passed to Freshstart ( www.freshstartweb.org.uk ), a local charity that has the capacity to reuse these items by making up starter packs for previously homeless people moving into their first flat. In Freshers Week, a high-profile event was held to redistribute the saved goods. An estimated 1000 people attended during the first three hours of the event, with around 5 tonnes of goods given a new home – reducing consumption, waste and saving students money. The engagement team talked to those in the very long queue about our different programmes and signed up 80 people who want to participate in our other events.
Blacket Avenue Community Garden At Blacket Avenue, one of the university's accommodation sites for 100 families, TEU helped facilitate the formation of a new community garden and orchard in the grounds. A new Garden Committee was set up by residents and engaged the managers, gardeners and residents in a process to come up with a plan for the substantial land around the building. In June, October and February, family friendly planting days were held with the residents, and an orchard of apple trees has now been planted. A composting workshop was also held in February, with volunteers from the Council ‘Master Composter’ scheme.
Other initiatives TEU has been involved with a range of other activities as part of the sustainability agenda at Pollock Halls, including: Promoting the City Car Club space at Pollock launched during our Green Week in February 2010. Usage went up dramatically during the year Recycling promotions in partnership with Accommodation Services as part of EU Waste Week in November
Food A low-carbon food programme has been identified as an asset for community engagement and carbon reduction in the Big Switch campaign. Sustained community interest in food has been expressed. The food project ended up spanning the activities and community areas of TEU and focused on more than just the 1st year students at Pollock halls. Work has also been conducted with EUSA to mirror promotion of low-carbon food choices with available food choices at catering outlets at the University. Support provided to EUSA to achieve Soil Association accreditation for a low-carbon menu at a new catering outlet. A Staff member attended a 3 day training on 'leadership for a sustainable food system' which was in turn shared with the food working group. The Food Pledge was developed in correspondence with external organisations already operating such scheme. A 'big-lunch' event was run in July, with 20 community members sharing a low- carbon lunch together at a local allotment, as part of the Eden Project national scheme. Outreach with relevant community members and groups was conducted so as to coordinate their involvement in a schedule of food-focused events to take place between September 2010 – March 2011. 9 events have been held, each working with a different student or staff society. These fun, hands-on events introduced how low-carbon food is implicated in each of their community interests – such as dairy-free cookery classes with the 'Bake Society'. These events were complemented by a wider and more general awareness campaign comprised of: research-based talks/workshops on the food system; a 'Harvest Festival' event in October; and numerous presentations delivered to audiences throughout the University on sustainable food issues and low-carbon food choices. http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/projects/food/ http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/projects/food/pastevents/ Over 480 local organic veg bags have been sold by volunteers since January 2011 and this project will be continued by the food working group on a volunteer basis. http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/projects/food/vegbags/ The Food Pledge launched in October has been signed by 273 people, with a reduction of 277 tonnes of CO2e. 90% of these pledges were signed at face-to-face engagement opportunities, accompanied by conversations with the Transition team and volunteers regarding food choices. Several well-received food newsletters have been delivered to pledge-signers. Food newsletter archive: http://bit.ly/gXIa4w A meat-free pilot day was delivered with the catering team at Pollock student hall. The food working group are also starting to collaborate with University procurement on working towards lower impact food procurement – this a voluntary activity for the TEU staff with student volunteers. It was recognised that the role of TEU funded project to support food activities in the University community is best done by focusing staff efforts on coordinating volunteers and encouraging key volunteers to take leadership roles for smaller projects. As a result, the staff developed clear volunteering briefs to circulate across the University in appropriate outlets such as EUSA's Volunteer Shop and the University Career's service.
The voluntary food working group have divided down leadership roles for various practical and/or strategic food projects at the University. 1. Local Veg Bags: 8 sales have now been held, selling over 480 bags to University staff and students. The voluntary base for this project has grown to 35 students, having received a lot of interest at each sale. Volunteers are being coordinated and each give 1-2 hours to make the sales happen. 2. EUSA – Soil Association collaboration: meetings and planning sessions have been hosted between the Student's Association and the Soil Association to pursue 'Food For Life' accreditation in 2-3 catering outlets at the University. The food working group presented and passed a motion at the students AGM for more sustainable and low-carbon food choices to be provided at the Unions. EUSA have shown willingness to achieve the “Bronze' accreditation by the end of the academic semester. http://www.soilassociation.org/Farmersgrowers/Inyourarea/Scotland/Supplychaindev elopmentprogramme/tabid/276/Default.aspx 3. University procurement: plans for a 'food forum' meeting with food decision makers at the University are being developed. An educational discussion with Tim Lang – Professor of Food Security at London City University was held, as a means to kick off discussion with food procurement managers. 4. Food Waste @ Pollock Halls: the working group is collaborating with the catering managers at the JMCC – the catering outlet for the 2000 students at Pollock halls of residence. Several meetings have been hosted, and a meeting with 10 first year students that use the catering service has led to a voluntary film project about food waste at the JMCC commencing. This is being run and supported in collaboration with the Film Making Society.
Travel The Greener Travel project aimed to address the carbon impact of the leisure travel of staff and students at the University. In our scoping study, this was identified as a significant part of the community footprint. The largest source of carbon emissions in this area is clearly from long and short-haul flights. Many thousands of flights are taken by staff and students each year for holidays and getting to and from Edinburgh.
We set out with a recognition that this area of any carbon footprint is especially difficult to tackle. Like food and diet choices, people are very sensitive about their travel choices and can be defensive about personal decisions on where to go on holiday and how to get there. With this in mind, our approach has not been to use guilt as a motivator of behaviour change. Instead, we have tried to promote and encourage positive alternatives when it comes to destinations, activities and modes of transport that people have as options for leisure travel.
In May, our first big event was a ‘Summer Travel Fair’ . This was targeted at students and staff planning their summers. We hosted a good range of organisations on stalls and coupled this with a very interesting lunchtime workshop on low-carbon travel by Jamie Andrews of the website loco2travel.com. Over 200 people attended. We used this event to launch the core element of our project: the ‘Fair Travel pledge’ . The pledge (still online at www.teu.org.uk/pledge ) asked people to commit to avoiding x number of flights and looking at the alternatives, learning more about local destinations and getting engaged in the issues. By 31 st March, 244 people had signed the pledge, with direct carbon savings from avoided flights of 145 tonnes. However, the indirect impacts are potentially much richer, but harder to quantify: Everyone who signed the pledge was sent a great resource booklet, the Infrequent Flyer’s Pocket Companion . You can now download one online here: http://peopleandplanet.org/dl/goinggreener/resources/infrequentflyersguide.pdf The pledgers received a monthly e-newsletter , packed with tips, news and events related to low-carbon travel options. Pledgers were the first to be invited to our regular travel events , the highlights of which included: ‘Winging It: our love/hate relationship with flying' , which was attended by 40 people and had four great speakers: John Stewart, who led the campaign against the third runway at Heathrow, Tom McMillan, founder of flightlesstravel.com, a website dedicated to slow travel, Peter McColl, local green campaigner on Scottish aviation policy and Graeme Spinardi, university academic on aviation and technology Holidays in the UK : an evening of discussion about low-impact holiday options in the UK, with an emphasis on locally brewed ales and ‘ale trails’. (Note: no CCF money was spent on beer!). One hundred people attended, and there were lots of positive comments about the format of the event. ‘Travel Quiz’ : our final event in March. A hugely successful travel-themed quiz, with a short Scottish holiday as first prize. Over 50 people attended and answered a series of round of question on environmental impacts, low-carbon choices and some general geography questions. Many other smaller events have taken place over the course of the project, including film screenings, a bike treasure hunt, activities to promote car sharing and videoconferencing and workshops at various events and conferences.
The project has succeeded insofar as it has created a great deal of a buzz around ideas of local, slower or low-carbon travel. Of all the TEU projects, this one tackles the hardest problem, and this feeling has come up regularly at Carbon Conversations sessions. In many cases, people remarked that they thought this was an area where the governments had more to change (better public transport, more affordable etc) than individuals who just wanted to get somewhere sunny! We fell short of our original target for carbon saving in this area but we have contributed substantially to debates within the university community on how to cut travel emissions, and that this will lead to greater community and institutional action. Travel pledgers received our newsletter, the latest one is available here: http://eepurl.com/clIID A number of events are also planned for the coming weeks, including a seminar with international speakers via videoconference, an event targeting students planning their summers and a travel quiz.
Peer Learning Peer-learning groups have proven our most effective tool for community learning and significant personal carbon reduction. We have found that the ratio of staff-time necessary to meaningfully embed these programmes across our community was underestimated in the original bid to a significant degree – making delivery of all 3 programmes originally planned (Carbon Conversations, Climate Solidarity and CRAGs) simultaneously impossible. Carbon Conversations has by far emerged as the most effective and implementable format amongst University staff and students. Although valuable for their diversity of approach, the remaining 2 peer-learning formats proved to be very time intensive in relation to the resulting carbon reductions achieved by participants – dually due to our particular community demographic and a number of uncontrollable social variables such as staff cuts and time pressures effecting University staff. Therefore we judged that our efforts were best spent rolling out and embedding the Carbon Conversations in a significant way rather than running all 3 programmes. Promotional materials were developed for participant recruitment, targeted to different audiences including academics and researchers. TEU has trained 62 Carbon Conversations (CC) facilitators including 20 people from across Scotland. TEU have held 25 groups and a total of 181 people have been involved in CCs saving to date on average of 3.2 tonnes CO2e per person (578 tonnes in total) with pledges on average of 4.8 tonnes per person for the next year. Follow-up training for facilitators was regularly scheduled. Several academic staff groups have participated: Accommodation Services (managing accommodation for 2000 students); the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships; and the Institute for Advanced Studies. The course is now offered as part of the Access and New Horizons programmes from the Office of Life Long Learning. Three Scottish 'trainers' have been trained, allowing us to subsequently deliver further facilitator training sessions with less cost and greater freedom. Website recruitment was developed including a sign-up mechanism, but the most effective recruiting was done word of mouth from those who had participated previously. Following identification that in this instance it is vital to assess the longer-term behaviour change impacts of the course, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms were developed to collect such data. Participants have indicated that, beyond the immediate carbon reductions resulting from course sessions, they plan to significantly reduce their carbon footprints over the longer-term. Five interns from the Strathclyde University project participated in group with a view to getting several of their people trained as facilitators. A carbon reduction calculator, based on the work done by Glasgow Caledonian University for Going Carbon Neutral Stirling, was created to use in measuring the reductions arising from people’s participation in the course. We have fed this back to Cambridge Carbon Footprint who have used some of the data in their latest edition of the handbook. We held a Scottish gathering for Carbon Conversations facilitators in March. With a swelling number of people trained there is a need to catalyse the development of a more local support network (than that of Cambridge) to secure the future quality and viability of the courses in Scotland.
Research We prepared a research framework and prospectus to engage others in research about TEU and related topics. Presentations were given to targeted MSc and undergrad courses. Several people have engaged in actively looking at the work of TEU. Researching the project and related items has been included in presentations given during course inductions and will be included in any subsequent presentations we do. We will be displaying academic posters at various events to showcase the research done. Carbon Masters have delivered their final report on the survey data. We have been asked to create a “Sustainable Researcher” brochure for Vitae, a higher education resource. The research evening held in November was attended by 20 people and another in February was attended by 15. Several people have completed work related to our project and several others have indicated they are currently engaged in related research. http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/projects/research/subpage-of- research/
Community Outcomes Big Green Makeover University staff we worked with reported how creating the space/time to explore their energy usage through various questionnaires and open-ended questions in the 30 minute Energy Saving Clinic sessions helped them to be more aware / remind themselves of the things that they could do to save energy. The use of the energy monitor was a further prompt to behaviour change. The fact that energy usage is often invisible and that energy monitors help make it real and tangible has informed their own efforts to encourage energy reduction among colleagues – they are currently seeking a building-wide energy monitor to display current usage at reception and in communal areas, and to provide incentives around this. Volunteers have gained in-depth knowledge and experience about the energy efficiency changes possible for students renting tenement city-centre properties. This includes working with landlords and encouraging / motivating other students to try and establish a constructive dialogue. Volunteers also particularly value the opportunity to get help from other volunteers when it comes to motivating their own flatmates about the changes possible – as to avoid things getting personal! Support sessions for volunteers are currently being run by more experienced volunteers who have joined the working group. Linking with the Student Association’s volunteering centre has broadened the motivations volunteers have for taking part. One volunteer in particular was concerned that she didn’t know enough to be advising and motivating other students and staff because she’d ‘never been involved with anything green before’. She started with the Advice Clinics in November and is now matched up with another volunteer to do home visits! The Advice Clinics are primarily targeted at staff to fit in their working day and personal consultations have been an opportunity to facilitate their learning about energy efficiency. The public location of the Advice Clinics also attracts many passing students and staff, who have played our famous ‘What Watt’ and found out just how expensive to run an electric shower is! We have devised 12 interactive games covering all aspects from identifying shower types to our lighting quiz that we use at any opportunity.
Travel City Car Club Since the launch of a City Car Club space in our 10:10 Week in February 2010, usage of the car went up from 20 hours/month to 160 hours/month by July and is steadily increasing. Currently around 3% of students bring their cars to university so the increasing popularity of this shared car scheme will hopefully reduce the need for this going forward.
Food The food activities have had a marked impact on the prominence of low-impact food issues on campus, and to the prominence of TEU generally as a community organisation. The veg bag scheme is an additional and voluntary output of the TEU food working group and is both a result, and means through which to develop, the capacity and engagement of community members interested in action on food. The weekly veg bag stalls, and now deliveries, have created a massive buzz and excitement on campus – in both campus areas they have been piloted in so far (central and King's buildings). Volunteer engagement in food as a result has grown quickly – with 35 people now volunteering with the scheme on a weekly basis. The vegbag scheme has attracted a lot of attention – with over 250 people join the facebook promotion page in the space of a few days. Bringing a vibrant local, low-impact food presence to the campus is proving a very valuable tool to promoting behaviour change, and engaging people in a very quick, but positive and encouraging way. The skills workshops have been hugely successful, with a total attendance of 155 individuals. These have proved popular with individuals looking for a deeper engagement and initial qualitative evaluation has indicated that it is encouraging a closer relationship between people and their food. As the capacity of the voluntary Food group grows the prominence of sustainable/ low-carbon food issues on campus grows also, generating more opportunities for face-to-face engagement at interactive events. This is the case both in 'light-touch' engagement (local/organic vegetable bags sales), or the deeper engagement through the food pledge and the EUSA/University catering managers – laying the foundations for the provision of sustainable food for the community in the future.
Peer Learning Carbon Conversations (CC) CC participants complete a carbon foot print at the start of each course. Post-course this footprint is repeated and a survey is provided asking participants for both qualitative feedback on the experience and to list actions (selected from a list in the course handbook) that they a) have taken immediately as result of course b) are planning to take in the next 12 months. The course has proven successful in both carbon reduction and participant motivation towards behaviour change and further community action. Quantitatively, pilot group members have taken on a range of low-carbon lifestyle choices (including travel, home energy, food and consumption choices) – please see early findings in section 3.3. Qualitatively, participants have reported improved understanding of the need for individual responses to climate change and improved motivation to cut personal carbon footprints as a result particularly of the supportive learning atmosphere. Huge enthusiasm has been registered by participants for both continuing with carbon cutting activities as a group independently from the course and for becoming course facilitators so as to become change-agents within their peer-groups. The programme is proving to be a particularly suitable format within the academic institution, establishing trust amongst the community through its structured and professional approach yet encouraging a 'new' and more personal form of engagement. As the success of the course is being established, we are seeing particular progress in staff attitudes towards personal carbon reduction. For instance, group members from the Centre for Environmental Change and Sustainability have embraced the guided group learning opportunity as a much needed mechanism to encourage wider academics to engage personally with the challenges of climate change, as well as academically. We have been requested to include sessions in Msc student inductions across all sustainability courses. Propelled by such successes, we are now looking to have the CC adopted as staff Continual Professional Development by Human Resources also. Qualitative feedback from the groups run last semester has been very positive and encouraging: see excerpts from participants on our blog here: http://www.transitionedinburghuni.org.uk/2011/01/dates-announced-for-carbon- conversations-groups/ (scroll down for 'participant testimonies'). Groups have either met, or are planning to meet for their reunion meetings where more detailed action planning and future plans are laid. Several groups have continued to meet regularly after the sessions are completed to work together on personal carbon reduction. A community of facilitators has developed with many facilitators joining in on monthly get togethers for a meal to celebrate the achievements and discuss opportunities. Most of the facilitators have mentioned that they have found the experience of leading the groups transformative both in terms of community group work skills as well as in examining further their own issues with and opportunities for carbon reduction. Climate Solidarity (CS) An attitudinal survey and footprint provided by COIN were run prior to the training session and a post-session fixed-answer survey was completed by all participants. The programme has been welcomed as useful and motivating for staff, providing “capabilities and tools to stop the talk and start the action”. The training created a buzz of enthusiasm amongst participants, bringing together interested individuals. Many of the participants were Energy Coordinators at the University and felt that the training strengthened their ability and purpose in their voluntary roles. As above though, staff funding cuts and other departmental issues made it too difficult to roll this out further Transition Discussions The Transition discussions group has proved very useful for those wearied by working with the issues of climate change and peak oil, as well as difficulties encountered when engaging with a sometimes resisting population. All participants reported feeling supported and refreshed after each of the sessions. “The Transition Discussions group offered a space for valuable reflections on the personal meanings of our work in Transition, allowing us to discuss our motivations and actions with each other. It had an impact on the way I viewed my work, helping me to set it in a comfortable context as part of my life, and created a cohesive group dynamic through allowing the group members to understand one another on a personal level.” Partnership with the student union Our work with EUSA during the phase II project has established us as a significant partner to them in their “ministering” to the student population. The staff coffee mornings have gotten us better known within the fabric of the University. Our presence in freshers week and other significant annual events has ensured we are a known name on campus.
CO 2e Emissions Reduction
People Directly Method of Data savings to date (Jan calculations used total People directly Affected to Capture 2010) carbon afffected to 4/2011 savings 4/2011 to 4/2011
1,800 students in Meter readings from the 74 tonnes CO2e - Free Free shop - Defra each academic uni, CO2 savings from Shop averted landfill of 7 figures Freeshop year plus 200 staff procurement (veggie tonnes of goods Calculator ; self food), CO2 assigned to Projected for Uni Self catering flats with behaviour changes as Catering flats 160 tonnes, BGM Calculator; reported by Pollock split with BGM Actuals Food Pledge - Carbon Challenge to date: Food Caledonian participants. pledges 200 tonnes University and Food Meat Free day 6.4 and Travel Pledge calculator; energy competition - Big Switch Calculator; Meat Free day - Caledonian University 467 250 households Smart meter readings, projections made for self BGM Calculator with a total of BGM survey results and catering flats - 160 1000 people follow up survey data, tonnes - to be split with 2000 students participating - this CO2 savings will be Big Switch Actuals to and staff,130 measure will assigned to different date: volunteers and change to 200 improvements based on Energy Saving Advi RAs 120 households with a estimates from the EST households with total of 800 people an average of 4 people each up to 40 landlords; 50 advice clinics 307 273 food pledges 100 participants n/a—project being nil to date - to evaluate will depend on ideas, plus 500 people redesigned and quantify in March but a combination of affected DEFRA, GCNS, BGM, Big Switch no data 12 teams of 5 on yet average 1000 participants Assign a co2 savings to 99 tonnes Defra - Food and to sign the pledge - the travel pledge and Travel Pledge it has proven more measure using this. Calculator 244 pledges, difficult - so 300- Follow up survey? attendance of 400 people over 300 at 145 events 300 Assigning CO2 cuts Savings from people Cambridge Carbon based on the footprint who have responded to Footprints and that is embedded in the date- 158 tonnes Centre for Alternative Carbon Conversations achieved since they Technology Footprint programme, as well as began the course , an calculator and CC the follow up footprint that average of 3.3 tonnes per Calculator (as is done person within 12 months: adapted from a further 209 tonnes Caledonian 181 participants, longer term: a further University work) plus 42 499 tonnes facilitators, 3 577 facilitator trainers access to our Tips online 2 tonnes (300 signups to DEFRA, Caledonian date for 3 tips each) see TIPS calculator and then assumption >>>> 3 350 signups
Sign up sheets, head 14,400 people of whom engagement team counts, pictures, videos, over 4100 have signed up batchbook database blogs following and to newletters and during events, follow up programmes conversations. over 14,000 people
The project, as with most new projects, took some time to gather momentum. Funding was awarded just before the start of the second academic semester within an academic year, leaving a very short time to launch projects, so piloting was done in early 2010. The summer, when most students and many staff are away for at least two months, was used to scale up pilots so that the project could operate at maximum efficiency during two remaining semesters within the grant period. We By the time the academic year started again in September 2010, our activities and organisation were well recognised around campus. Our engagement and sign up for projects rose sharply at that time, in large part due to our face to face engagement team, increasing over 200%, and continued to rise through the second semester, through to the end of the project. Indeed, 74% pf our signups came form face to face engagement, justifying the decision to move away from more traditional marketing. Data gathering from volunteers and participants is something we grew better at over time, making phone calls to remind people and offering small prizes to get people to fill in forms. We note other projects have extrapolated results for their communities based on small samples, whilst we reported only on the people who participated in our programmes who were able to get their data back to us. Perhaps taking a sample and extrapolating would have been a better method to prove the effectiveness of our projects and the community capacity built up by the end of the funded period of the project. Other Social, Economic and Environmental impacts TEU has encouraged more cycling for both staff and students in a variety of events. There is evidence that people are using their bikes more often both to get to the campus and to get around between buildings. This is healthier and has lowered carbon emissions. The many people who now buy veg bags weekly and who have attended cookery classes held by the food group are now enjoying a healthier diet. The project employed 6 people 4 days a week and up to 20 people over the lifetime of the project each at 12 hours per week. This latter group of people were mainly students, many of whom will continue on at the University and in the local area after graduating. Having this many part-time people involved meant that the reach of TEU extended to their friends and in some reported cases their families. Volunteers are involved in the food group (35), the very active big green makeover working group (a core of 10, but with an additional 90 trained home visit volunteers), Carbon Conversations facilitators (42 with a waiting list now for more to be trained), and 3 people who have volunteered to help with administrative activities over the life of the project. In addition there are always a number of people who volunteer to help with one-off activities or events, several of these are staff. Training was provided for 90 big green makeover volunteers, 62 Carbon Conversations facilitators across Scotland, and 14 people recently attended a social enterprise course which will help the community remain resilient and to take forward some of the projects now in full swing in the face of lack of grant funding. Courses have been held in participatory decision making, evaluation, presentation skills, and workshop planning skills. Additionally, as mentioned above, food skills course and energy saving events transferred skills to many people.
We have encouraged many more people to get involved in the University allotment over the project time frame and enjoyed its produce at communal meals on occasion. We helped to plant trees near university accommodation and the food working group visited a local organic fair (by cycle).
Legacy of the project The Big Green Makeover working group will carry forward the big green makeover activities into next year, recruiting new member for the working group along the way. Many of the volunteers can now deliver the training to new volunteers to enable more home visits. The Carbon Society may take over the Energy Advice Clinics for staff. Carbon Conversations can continue as volunteer facilitators form new groups of people to take part. The skills gained by the volunteer facilitators will be useful in any community engagement activity. Both Accommodation Services and the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) within the University see Carbon Conversations as a useful staff development course. IAD may host facilitator trainings in future. The Food working group will continue with veg back sales and has recently ventured into vegan and vegetarian catering. The apple press built at last year’s harvest will be put to use again in autumn 2011. There is growing enthusiasm for bread making as a group. The food group has been asked to continue working with EUSA to help them achieve a better standard of sustainable catering. All three of these areas are easily cascaded and it seems the project has built enough momentum to keep an interest in these areas for several years to come. Our catalogue of ideas website, sharing our best practice approaches, tools and materials, will exist for many years, hosted by People and Planet, and can be added to by the users to keep it up to date. We have also passed on many of our ideas and materials during the project to help and support to other groups striving to move toward a lower carbon world. Finally, we have sparked interest in our academic community and others for increased research in the environmental arena, relating to Transition movements, behaviour change, renewable energy, waste and consumption, etc.
Appendix A Outreach and Events, April 2011
Go Green Weeks Go Green Week, 8-14 February 2010: “10:10 Week” Events were organised for “10:10 Week”, named to coincide with the 10:10 campaign and timed to coincide with national Go Green universities and colleges week. 22 events were organised by 11 different campus groups, offices and projects, with an average attendance of 57 people. Many events publicised Transition's carbon cutting projects and the week served as something of a launch-pad for the CCF project.
Event Description Organiser Attendance 20-Milers Cycle Ride Cycle ride 20 Milers unrecorded Allotment Society's Winter Wonderland Allotment workshop Allotment & Permaculture Society unrecorded Back to the Future: How old will you be in 2050? Rolling workshop and display Transition Edinburgh University 50 Big Green Makeover workshop Workshop Transition Edinburgh University unrecorded Bike Doctor Free bicycle repair University Transport & Parking unrecorded Bike Treasure Hunt Cycling game Transition Edinburgh University 16 Cabbage Crudité Ambassador? Foods, Frolics and Folk Home made buffet gala Transition Edinburgh University 80 Carbon Speed Dating Speed dating Transition Edinburgh University 30 Climb the Green Ladder: make your company and career more sustainable Seminar Centre for Environmental Change and Sustainability unrecorded DIY Fayre Craft and recycling market Transition Edinburgh University 120 Fair Trade Café Buffet Fair Trade Café Society 50 Food, Inc. Film showing Filmhouse unrecorded Home Film showing Transition Edinburgh University 3 Hopenhagen or Brokenhagen? Student Witnesses to the UN Climate Talks Discussion People & Planet Society 40 Launch of City Car Club Unveiling University Accommodation Services unrecorded Our Global Challenges: The Role of Civil Society After Copenhagen Discussion Transition Edinburgh University 150 Tea with the Hearty Squirrel Shop promotion Edinburgh University Cooperative Society unrecorded The Age of Stupid plus short films Film showing Transition Edinburgh University 30 The Big Switch Street promotion University Accommodation Services unrecorded The Yes Men Film showing Transition ECA unrecorded Valentines Party! Club night Napier Conservation Society unrecorded Valentines’ Walk Walk Transition Edinburgh University unrecorded Average attendance 56.9
A full evaluation was carried our by Christie McGillivray. Comments from specific events, regarding 10:10 DIY Fair:
At the DIY Fayre there was some great stuff. […] a good mix of stalls and people. - Fleur Ruckley, University Waste and Environment Manager
Regarding Cabbage Crudité Ambassador:
The number of people that came, the atmosphere... some friends that weren’t involved at all before came along. - Katherine Baird, Transition Edinburgh University Outreach Assistant
There was a good atmosphere and it felt like a community celebration – that’s what it was supposed to be about. - Ruth Cape, Transition Edinburgh University Oversight Group
Go Green Week, 25-31 October 2011: “Edinburgh Sustainability Week” Events were organised for our second green activity week, “Edinburgh Sustainability Week”, timed to involve new students at the start of the academic year. 41 separate programmed events took place at eight University campuses. Total attendance for the week totalled about 4000 people, of which 700 attended events specifically about sustainability, and a further 3280 attended participating events, which had a
sustainability element (for example, an activity or stall). Conversations with counted individuals total 270 but were probably much higher. Groups external and internal took part in both the planning and execution of the week. Contributions came from a diverse group of 29 organisations including 16 student societies and 8 University departments and offices. Each brought unique aspects to the programme and publicity effort, reaching new audiences in the University population. Many collaborated with partners with which that hasn't previously worked and for others it was the first time they had taken part in a University-wide initiative. Some information about specific events is detailed below.
Day Title Organiser Attendance 23/10/10 Student Switch Off @ Pollock EUSA and University of Edinburgh * 23/10/10 Big Green Cheese EUSA with Transition Edinburgh University 1000 24/10/10 Springfield Mill Bulb Planting Dirty Weekenders Society * 24/10/10 The Teviot Pub Quiz featuring Eco Questions EUSA 80 25/10/10 A Better Way to Work UoE * 25/10/10 A Lunch Introduction to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards @ Holyrood EUSA and UoE 3 25/10/10 Tibet: A Critical Perspective in 2010 Tibet Society * 25/10/10 The Pleasance Pub Quiz featuring Eco Questions EUSA 80 25/10/10 Film: Flow Wateraid Society and People & Planet Society 35 25/10/10 United Nations Schools Outreach UNYSA School Outreach Society * 26/10/10 Edinburgh Sustainability Week Roadshow @ KB EUSA and University of Edinburgh 40 26/10/10 An Introduction to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards @ KB EUSA and UoE 2 26/10/10 Meat-free Day at Pollock UoE Accommodation Services 1580 26/10/10 Energy Saving Workshop Transition Edinburgh University * 26/10/10 Recycle-o-rama UoE Accommodation Services * 26/10/10 Loesje: Creative-Postering Workshop People & Planet Society * 26/10/10 One World One Health with Professor Sue Welburn University of Edinburgh 200 26/10/10 The KB Pub Quiz featuring Eco Questions EUSA 40 26/10/10 Film: Constant Gardener MedAccess Society 30 27/10/10 Afternoon at the Allotment Allotment and Permaculture Society 4 27/10/10 Fair Trade Café Fair Trade Café Society 40 27/10/10 Edinburgh Sustainability Week Roadshow @ Potterrow EUSA and UoE * 27/10/10 An Introduction to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards @ Potterrow EUSA and UoE * 27/10/10 Travel and Volunteering Fair UoE Careers Service 500 27/10/10 Radical Flyers Workshop People & Planet Society and Old Hat Books 8 27/10/10 Winging It: Our Love/Hate Relationship with Flying Transition Edinburgh University 38 28/10/10 Edinburgh Sustainability Week Roadshow @ Easter Bush EUSA and UoE * 28/10/10 A Tea-time Introduction to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards @ New College EUSA and UoE * 28/10/10 Climate Change at the Movies Cineco Film Festival 47 28/10/10 Microfinance: Grameen Bank with speaker from Peru Latin American Development and Cultural Appreciation Society (LADCAS) * 28/10/10 An Overview of Carbon Capture and Storage in the UK Geophysics & Meteorology Society 40 28/10/10 What Role Can Scotland Play in Working Towards A Green Future? Young Greens Soc., SNP Soc., LibDem Soc., and Scottish Socialist Party Soc. 12 28/10/10 Film: Togetherness Supreme Africa in Motion Film Festival * 29/10/10 Tibetan Tea Tasting Societea and Tibet Society 25 29/10/10 Edinburgh Sustainability Week Roadshow @ Little France EUSA and University of Edinburgh * 29/10/10 An Introduction to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards @ Little France EUSA and University of Edinburgh * 29/10/10 Apple Pressing and Cider Making Transition Edinburgh University and Abundance Edinburgh 150 29/10/10 Film: The Importance of Being Elegant Africa in Motion Film Festival * 30/10/10 Film: The Age of Stupid Cineco Film Festival 25 31/10/10 Film: Dance Got Me Africa in Motion Film Festival * 31/10/10 Filmmaking & Editing workshop Cineco Film Festival 6 *attendance not recorded 3985
Apple Pressing and Cider Making, Transition Edinburgh University and Abundance Edinburgh, Fri 29 Oct 10, 1 – 3pm, By University Visitor Centre, Charles Street Members of Abundance Edinburgh and the Food Working Group set up a cider pressing station on Charles Street and invited passers by to take part. 150 did so, and the event received positive responses from passers-by who were told about the week. Big Green Cheese , EUSA with Transition Edinburgh University, Sat 23 Oct 10, 9pm Transition staff distributed programmes, signed-up students to mailing lists, and offered rides on a bicycle powered sound system in the Potterrow Dome during the Big Cheese. Fresh Air student radio also broadcast from the bike. The event fell short of a fully greened Big Cheese as
envisaged by EUSA, who provided little help with the event. 50 people had a go on and those present said it was a great success! Climate Change at the Movies, Cineco Film Festival, Thu 28 Oct 10, 5.30 – 7pm, Martin Hall, New College Christian Aid and Cineco, Edinburgh University's free Environmental Film Festival, held a debate and discussion about how film has contributed to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of Environmental Sustainability. The panel was Professor Michael Northcott (Theology and Ethics), Professor Janette Webb (Sociology) and Rachel Howell (Researching “The Potential for Climate Change Mitigation through Education”). The event led through clips of different environmental films and invited the audience to consider their ability to engage and inspire their audience into action. Attendance was 47, with a particularly high proportion of academics. Olivia Furber has written a guide for volunteers on how to run such an event. Edinburgh Sustainability Week Roadshow, EUSA and UoE, Various times Displays and stalls were be set-up on different days in the week during lunch-hours at four campus: Kings Buildings, Potterrow, Easter Bush and Little France. Transport and Parking, Waste and Recycling, Energy, Transition Edinburgh University's Engagement team along with student societies contributed. It was coordinated by Transition Edinburgh University's events team. The road-show was designed as a publicity vehicle for the programme, schemes already running, and to inform new people by inhabiting popular spaces. Introductions to the Edinburgh Sustainability Awards , EUSA and UoE, Various times The Edinburgh Sustainability Awards, run by EUSA and UoEd Sustainability, are Edinburgh's implementation of NUSSL's “Green Impact” scheme ( http://www.eauc.org.uk/green_impact ). Their launch was planned to include a series of five introductory talks across the University: at Holyrood, Kings Buildings, Potterrow, New College, and Little France in the Week. These talks, coupled with the roadshow (see above), received high prominence on publicity for the week. Turnout was low at events early in the week leading to those later on being cancelled altogether. Meat-free Day at Pollock, UoE Accommodation Services, Tue 16 Oct, Pollock Halls To promote low-carbon diets, Accommodation Services organised for the catering at Pollock Halls to be totally meat free for the day. There was also a stall giving away recycling freebies. In all, an estimated 1580 people would have eaten a meal. Since usually between 50-80% of residents eat vegetarian options, this represents as many as 800 additional people eating a veggie meal that day. However, no information was provided to explain the lack of meat options and unhappy students were “very rude” to catering staff about this.
Large interactive campus events and Peer-to-peer training sessions For the purposes of budgeting and to reduce the number of overlapping elements of the project, these two elements as listed in the CCF bid have been amalgamated into a programme of “Handprint Social” events and other small events as described below.
27 Jan 2010, Handprint Social pilot: “Holidays in a Low CO2 World”, David Hume Tower No detailed evaluation compiled. Attendance 10 students.
24 Feb 2010, Handprint Social pilot: “Trade in a Low CO2 World”, David Hume Tower No detailed evaluation compiled. Attendance 15 students.
17 Mar 2010, Handprint Social event: “Keeping Our Homes Warm in a Low CO2 World”, Medical College Attendance 20 including academics and students. Presentations and discussions on energy efficiency in buildings, fuel poverty, green buildings engineering and architecture, insulation, including: Edinburgh's Big Green Makeover – Volunteer run project reducing energy usage in student flats. Transition Edinburgh University. Big Switch @ Pollock – Inter-house energy competition run in University residences with Accommodation Services. Transition Edinburgh University. Energy Performance Certificates – What EPC legislation means for Edinburgh residents. Transition Edinburgh University. Combined Heat and Power at Edinburgh University – George Square, Pollock Halls, and Kings Buildings are powered by Edinburgh University's own power plants. David Somervell, Sustainability Advisor.
29 Apr 2010, Handprint Social: “Food for the Future”, Kings Buildings Blurb: In a changing climate and with cheap oil running out, why are our diet choices important? A room full of people got to grips with the impacts our food habits have on the future of food and more importantly what we can do to about it. Attendance: 34 Feedback: Feedback was enabled through a pie-slice diagram with the following statements on – I learned something I didn’t know before. I liked the discussions. I liked the presentations. I met new people. I feel inspired about food. I enjoyed myself. Feedback was also encouraged through sheets with the following questions – Name one idea how a sustainable food future could be achieved at Edinburgh University:
Could you offer any food themed workshops (Please leave contact info)? What food related workshops do you want to see offered on campus? Ideas to improve sustainability of food that were offered were as follows: Farmers market in George Square or a local food hub/van for students to access/buy produce from/order veg boxes to. More and better vegetarian options in the campus restaurants (they’re not that great now). Something like a Slow Food tour around Edinburgh. An online map of local shops and recurrent events. Prepare healthy lunch packages for sale outside library. Do a mass cooking session to make it as cheap as junk food and give out recipe with the lunch-box. Workshop on how to cook/waste less food.
8 Jun 2010, Handprint Social: “Transition: A Staff Introduction ”, William Robertson Building An event to introduce Transition Edinburgh University to UoE staff members on a basic level in order to stimulate interest, project support, and project participation. Attendance : 14 Feedback: Feedback was offered informally after the presentations. These are the main points that arose. More information should be given about the funding bid to make the meaning of 'lifestyle' carbon clearer. A common assumption is that TEU's role is to make the University buildings and institutional activities more sustainable, when in fact our actual role also covers people's 'home' lives in the context of the University community. Something to bear in mind when carbon footprint survey data is processed is how the University accounts for travel where the money is provided by external organisations (e.g. research councils or endowments). An inter-departmental energy league was suggested, which should give motivation for savings to be made through building energy. While the reduction of buildings energy is not within our remit, this would raise awareness of the importance of energy use and should be considered as part of the work to make departments more accountable for the energy they use. We could have started with something more inclusive, perhaps a go-around of some sort to ensure effective introductions and networking. It was commented that the invitation email had reached a lot of staff, so it is hard to identify a reason for under-attendance. In this case it was not due to poor publicity.
13 Oct 2010, Handprint Social: “Technology and People in a Low CO2 World”, David Hume Tower Short presentations of academic studies were given by four people. The presenters were as follows: Diane Mayall – Analysis of the Passive House technology innovation journey in Scotland Kendred Dove – Successful renewable energy trends and factors in Germany and Denmark Philippa Parmiter – The Power of Small Businesses: Are photovoltaics a viable enrgy source in Scotland? Dave Hawkey – Heat and the City: The development of low carbon heat systems in cold-climate
cities The question/answer and discussion session that followed lasted until 6.20pm, clearly demonstrating a broad engagement with the content of the event. The event concluded with a presentation from Sion and Esmi about the Edinburgh Impact Awards and associated Ideas Competition that Transition Edinburgh University are running.
27 Oct 2010, Handprint Social: “Winging it: Our Love Hate relationship with flying”, David Hume Tower Attendance: 40 This aim of the event was to encourage people to take a critical look at flying and debate on the topic. In order to do this we invited a number of speakers to present a variety of viewpoints on the topic presenting; environmental impacts, social impacts, past anti-flying campaigns, political context and alternative aviation technology. Speakers included: Dr Graham Spinardi from Edinburgh University who presented on alternative aviation technologies. Tom McMillan from flightless travel website. John Steward from HACAN then spoke about their campaign to halt expansion of Heathrow airport. Peter McColl, Chair of Transition Scotland and Co-Convener of the Edinburgh Green Party, on the political context of aviation.
22 Nov 2010, Hand Print Social: “Let’s Have a Rubbish Evening”, Chaplaincy Auditorium This hand print social formed part of the international campaigns “Buy Nothing Day” and “EU Waste Action Week” with a focus on waste and consumption. Attendance: 60 Let’s have a Rubbish evening was loosely structured in order to allow people to move freely between the different work stations. These included: Making stuff with plastic bags – ironing bags to make fabric. Working with old bike parts – jewellery and decorations. I spend a hour or so picking up scrap for the bike station and washed these. Materials=inner tubes, brake cables and various washers/nuts. Cardboard box Reindeer making – brought by participants. Skipped food stand – brought by participants. Tetra pac wallet making – Materials brought by participants. Plastic bottle greenhouse workshop. This proved the most difficult to source materials. I thought it would easy to get from the council but shanks were poor at responding. Davy grey from EUSA kindly offered to help us out last minute but provided plastic cups instead of bottles. This became a brainstorming with plastic table. Making things out Crisp packets in the oven. Changeworks brought along a stand with some of their waste materials http://www.changeworks.org.uk Fiona from Waste innovations also came with a stall of examples of what they do and how to get involved.
The event was very well attended and the room felt busy and was a mix of People & Planet, Create Soc., Transition, Cineco and lots of new faces. People were really positive about this event and it was nice to see people getting stuck into making things and getting excited.
Externally organised events we contributed to Green Drinks , monthly. Monthly socials for students and staff involved in environmental work at the University, organised in collaboration with other student groups. Our Changing World lecture series, Sep-Oct 2010. Public, free and open awareness raising lecture series ran by the University. We helped promote the talks and used them to promote our projects. Cineco Film Festival , Sep-Nov 2010. Student run film series linked with practical action projects at the University. We helped them with promotion, room bookings, and contacts. Several Cineco events also promoted our projects. 10.10.10 Day , Oct 2010. Coordinated by the 350.org campaign, and entitled a “global day of doing”. We promoted 101010 events going on in the city including a “Carotmob” and a Dirty Weekenders project. How Green is Your Organisation? , Jan 2010. In conjunction with the Business Society, we ran an event engaging business students in environmental issues. Edinburgh Climate Conference , Feb 2010. We helped organise a series of practical action workshops for the 200 attendees of the conference, organised by the Economics Society. Earth Hour , Mar 2010. Awareness raising day coordinated by WWF, aimed at promoting energy reduction. We promoted the day and the small events we ran as part of it.
“Our Global Challenges” events The Our Global Challenges events took place in February and September 2010. A third scheduled event was amalgamated into the Universities in Transition conference.
11 Feb 2010, Our Global Challenges: The Role of Civil Society After Copenhagen, Old College Edinburgh University’s leading experts share their views on the task of addressing climate change in 2010. A panel discussion with Professor Martin J. Siegert (Head of the School of GeoSciences, Assistant Principal for Energy and Climate Change) Navraj Singh Ghaleigh LLB LLM (Lecturer in Public Law) and Dr. Andy R. Kerr (Director of Scottish Alliance for Geoscience Environment Society). Attendance: 150 primarily academic staff and students Positive comments: “Combined different people.” “Quite full.” “Very good turnout.” Areas to be improved: “Wasn't as focused as I would like it to be.” “Interesting but didn't leave with a clear message.” “Speakers need more prepping.” Next-steps: “Clearer topics.” “Get a clearer picture of topics and how they link together.” “Story-line progression of themes lead people through.” “Really linking what we're doing to speakers and themes. To come out with ideas.”
15-23 Sep 2010, Hard Rain photography exhibition, George Square Mark Edward's powerful Hard Rain photography exhibition was displayed publicly in George Square, in the centre of the University, during the start of the semester. The exhibition publicised our year-launch event, “Visions of Change”, and was used an an engagement tool for various carbon cutting programmes. Based on two head-counts taken at varying times in the day, it is estimated that 4000 people viewed Hard Rain whilst it was displayed.
22 Sep 2010, Visions of Change: Artists Communicating Our Environmental Future + Hard Rain talk, Appleton Tower Our second Our Global Challenges speaker event took place in the second week of term and served as our welcome event to new students.
Part 1. Artists Communicating Our Environmental Future. Local artists and those working in environmental media kick start a discussion about how the arts can respond to and can inspire action on global issues. Part 2. Hard Rain talk with photographer Mark Edwards and panel. Mark Edwards, creator of the ‘Hard Rain’ photography exhibition, presents his exhibition and reflects on his work as a photographer communicating the impact of climate change. A specially invited panel will show us what Hard Rain means for us at Edinburgh. Chair: Iain Macwhirter, Rector , University of Edinburgh and Sunday Herald Columnist Mark Edwards, environmental photographer and creator of ‘Hard Rain’ Sam Hansford, Vice President of Services , Edinburgh University Students Association Ben Miller , Winner of the Principal’s Medal and Transition Edinburgh University Facilitator Attendance: Artists Communicating Our Environmental Future – 45 people Hard Rain talk – 230 people 44 people filled out feedback forms, 19% of those attending. Based on these forms we estimate attendance of 147 student undergraduates, 26 post-graudates, 5 staff and 52 others. Average scores out of 5: Artists Communicating average - 4.3/5 Refreshments/displays average - 4.6/5 Hard Rain talk average - 4.7/5 Everyone said they would attend a TEU event or activity again. 36 said they would take part in more environmental activities as a result of the event. 6 saod they would do what they do already. No-one said they would do less. All comments left: "Incredible turnout" "approachable and nice" "emotive" "sickeningly beautiful" "**" "Powerful + inspirational + realistic" "Powerful presentation of our world/planet" "really really really … useful!"
"Inspiring!" "Moving and inspiring – thanks!" "Thought-provoking/inspiring/empowering" "Challenging" "Inspiring moving motivating" "Emotive, encouraging" "Beautiful, useful, interesting, astonishing" "Great talks!! Great inspiration!" "V. powerful message. Thanks for organising this event" "Very student orientated – but good to see – have the event during working hours?" "inspiring" "AWESOME" "Just amazing! Thank you for this wonderful event: we should be more sensitive. Tonight reminded me of humankind!" "Need to reach out more (obvious I know...) but there was a feeling it was preaching to the converted...maybe recommend to subjects. So many people will only do things for their own benefit so need to be persuaded to go through their subjects or something along those lines" "amazing" "Very Good" "overwhelming, moving, motivating" "communication bridges science and democracy"
Reaching out beyond our campus Proactive engagement with similar and surrounding communities. Working with partners NUS Scotland ( http://www.nus.org.uk/scotland ) and People & Planet UK ( http://peopleandplanet.org/ ), Transition Edinburgh University supported other student groups following our lead in running successful practical action environmental projects at Universities. University of St. Andrews. Support in launching “Transition St. Andrews” initiative, now up and running. Gave a talk at their launch event to 65 people, 7 Dec. 2009. Edinburgh College of Art. Multiple visits and workshops supporting the “Transition ECA” initiative working with students, the Student President and staff. Dec 2009-Mar 2010. Edinburgh Napier University. Workshop given in Jan to 15 staff and students, and support and guidance for “Green Week” events, 8-12 Feb. Queen Margaret University. Talk given to sustainability committee, Jan. and workshop given at conference attended by 60 staff, Jun. University of Aberdeen. Phone and email support and guidance to the Students Association and Shared Planet Societies in compiling their (now up and running) carbon crash project. Dec-Feb 2010. Transition Edinburgh South. Regular communication and resource sharing including helping arrange desk space at the University for their new outreach project, Jan-present. Transition Edinburgh. Ongoing participation in this community hub group, Dec. 2009-present. Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. Pam gave a talk at SEPA in Mar. explaining the transition model and ethos and how it might be applied an institution. Friends of the Earth – Edinburgh. Sion gave a talk to this local environmental community group, 25 Mar, to 12 people. World Development Movement – Edinburgh. Ric gave a talk to 10 people in the group about how the idea behind transition and how it related to WDM. People & Planet Network (UK). Ric have a two workshops about carbon cutting to university students setting up similar projects attending the “Summer Gathering” event, Jun 2010. Attendance: 25. Painting Edinburgh Green, Sep 2010. We held a stall at Transition Edinburgh's annual marketplace event offering advice and help to interested people and inviting them to our programmes. Transition Edinburgh South Fair, Oct 2010. Alice and Caro attended TES' fair and held a stall offering advice and help to interested people and inviting them to our programmes. Diverse Routes to Belonging, Nov. 2011. Several staff and interns presented
and work-shopped our projects to activists from across the UK a the Transition Network's high-profile Edinburgh conference. Shared Planet Conference, People & Planet, Nov 2011. Representatives of the group presented and work-shopped our projects to students from across the UK, including many from Scotland. Attendance: 50. People & Planet Scotland Regional Gathering, Jan 2011. Ric gave workshops on Transition Universities and Running Successful Events to groups of 10 students from universities across Scotland. Crisis Forum, Universities in Transition conference, Feb 2011. Alice, an intern, and Olga, a volunteer with the Big Green Makeover project, represented TEU at this event in Winchester, England, on academic issues around transition.
“Edinburgh University: part of a sustainable city” event. In order to maximise the reach of this programme, we've been working with the Transition Edinburgh city-wide group. After discussions in this forum, Transition Edinburgh University supported the “Painting Edinburgh Green” event, 25-26 Sep. 2010. “Universities in Transition” events. 26 Mar 2010, Universities in Transition: “University Footprints, Community Handprints”, Holyrood Campus The first Universities in Transition event was run successfully on 26 Mar 2010 at Holyrood Campus, University of Edinburgh. Attendance: 43 people from 12 universities in Scotland. Most people rated the day as very good and good, mostly meeting their expectations, and overall 8, 9 or 10 out of 10. Eight people mentioned networking with like minded as a positive or the most positive part of the day. Six people mentioned the ideas they learnt, especially those which were practical, as being a key strength. Three attendees felt the day only partly or not at all met their expectations, one saying more structure, plenaries, and time for reflection would have been good. These three also gave overall scores below 8, the only to do so. Ideas for improvement mentioned by others included more hands on content, and information about food. The success of the day should be considered as a culmination of successful collaborative work with People & Planet and NUS Scotland, and a clear output of our “proactive engagement with similar and surrounding communities” work. Comments from evaluation forms: I enjoyed networking; there was a great diversity of people and ideas. It was great to meet like minded people with different ideas and approaches. The whole day was equally useful. Very well organised; the workshop on Edinburgh's freeshop was particularly good. Skills sharing and community capacity building was very helpful. All the enthusiasm of the team was passed on. The evaluation included recommendations and next steps to be taken up by participants including Transition Edinburgh University. Many of these were carried forward to the 2011 event (see below).
18-19 Mar 2011, Universities in Transition: “Grassroots Climate Exchange: Universities Colleges and the Green Transition”, Teviot Row House and Holyrood Campus Grassroots Climate Exchange on the 18-19 March. With an attendance of 90 people over 2 days, the inspiring initiative of Grassroots Climate Exchange made available an incredible array of knowledge on community run programmes, funding, and innovative climate action ideas. Talks, workshops and discussions brought together professionals, contributors from 20 universities, colleges and non-profit organisations
among which People and Planet, Green League or the UCCCFS (Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland) students and Transition communities. A chance for ideas to be tested, projects to be discussed and used as inspiration for future ones, Grassroots Climate Exchange had the general feel of a 2 days summer camp where everyone involved was there to enjoy themselves and make a memorable contribution. Or as one of the participants stated: "Thank you! I truly enjoyed it and it made me believe in my plans and projects." Participants rated the event 8.1 / 10 with eight out of ten people being inspired to do something new on the environment as a result of the event. Grassroots Climate Exchange was first and foremost a student initiative for the students, providing the tools, knowledge and comfort of taking climate action ideas forward as part of an on-growing community. “I've been involved in environmental action at a governmental level, in the national union of students, in my students association, and at the grass roots, and I've found that the key to building community is in finding how to inspire and engage people,” said Ruth Bush, who pioneered NUS Scotland’s Student Footprints. 90 people attended over 2 days. Attendees gave the event 8.1 / 10 on average. 8/10 said they would do something new on the environment as a result of the event. 9/10 said they'd come to a similar event again. Comments from evaluation forms: "Superb balance open space and specific sessions." "The flexibility about the workshops and discussion subjects was a great way of using the skills of attendees." "I liked learning about how to practically implement community enterprises." "Thank you! I truly enjoyed it and it made me believe in my plans and projects." Things people said they'd go on to do: "Find more things going on in my area." "Start a national homes make-over project." "I am quite keen on organising an environmental film festival in my community."
Appendix B Staff Engagement
Transition Edinburgh University Draft Strategy for Engaging University Staff and associated Action Plan Michael O. Snyder, June, 2010
Abstract
This report provides an exceptional insight into the motivation and attitudes towards a range of pro-environmental behaviours of a cohort of staff at the University of Edinburgh. Around 80 interviews were conducted by a recent graduate of the Masters course in Environmental Sustainability at the King’s Building who was hired as a Summer Intern. Interviews were done in May/June 2010. This summary has been compiled and edited down by Irina Nedelcu from a longer report. It presents Mike’s own views of how staff could best be involved in the Transition Edinburgh University project and indeed the wider social Responsibility & Sustainability agenda at Edinburgh. The interviews focused on: a. awareness of climate change, peak oil, Transition, Transition Edinburgh University etc b. interests and motivators for getting involved in such initiatives c. barriers to getting involved in such initiatives d. ideas and visions for Transition projects that they would like to see at the University. e. Appropriate avenues for communication, information sharing, and marketing of events. Perceptions of others’ awareness, interest, barriers and ideas were also captured in the interviews. A range of activities / priorities for the Transition Edinburgh University team are outlined and around 20 specific opportunities for enhancing engagement with academic and support staff on the issues. Finally Mike emphasises the crucial role staff have to play in making changes at the University and challenges the Transition team to maximise engagement with them.
1. Introduction 1.1 Transition Edinburgh University Transition Edinburgh University is a student-staff led initiative (six project facilitation staff, several part-time interns plus a volunteer community) funded by the Scottish Government to tackle Climate Change and reduce the University of Edinburgh’s dependence on fossil fuels. The ‘Transition Model’ is a community-based approach that seeks to initiate and support practical projects that enable more sustainable, resilient lifestyles. As an organization, Transition Edinburgh University operates from within the University of Edinburgh’s Estates and Buildings Department and is supported by a volunteer Steering Group, the Transition Towns Network and the People and Planet Society. Transition Edinburgh University has secured Climate Challenge Funding (CCF) from January 2010 to March 2011 to meet its aims and objectives. 1.2 Transition Edinburgh University’s Engagement with University of Edinburgh Staff Academic and support staff at University comprise approximately 28% of Transition Edinburgh University community, being the second largest target group (after students, which constitute the remaining 72% of the population), but having a unique set of characteristics: 1. Longevity: University staff represent the longer-standing, non-transient element of the University’s population while also constituting and engaging with the hierarchy of the University Institution in ways that students do not. 2. Experience: University staff consist of highly regarded ‘experts’ in a broad range of academic fields, as well as a skilled support team of technical and administrative staff – a concentrated yet diverse wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight that proves highly valuable to guiding, developing and driving the Transition Edinburgh University process. 3. Influence: Effectively reaching out to and engaging staff with the ‘Transition Concept’ will produce a ‘ripple effect’ that moves outwards through their research, teaching, working and social lives in a way that influences many other communities and organizations. At present, five months into the 16-month funding period, it is the generally held perception that University staff remain a largely untapped community resource for Transition Edinburgh University (students having so far received the bulk of the engagement efforts). As such, Transition Edinburgh University has set out to conduct the appropriate research to develop and enact a Staff Engagement Strategy and Action Plan that can effectively mobilize these potentials. 1.3 Aims of the Staff Engagement Strategy and Action Plan The aims of this research project were as follows: 1. To use Transition Edinburgh University action research techniques to facilitate the articulation of a shared vision for appropriate engagement with University staff. 2. To develop a comprehensive contact network of academic and support staff within the University community and use it to conduct face-to-face interviews, written questionnaires to identify the relevant motivators and barriers to achieving the Transition Edinburgh University engagement vision. 3. To propose an engagement strategy and action plan that draws together both the Transition Edinburgh University vision for staff engagement and the identified motivators and barriers of University staff into a concise, actionable framework. 4. To hand over the products produced from the research process to Transition Edinburgh University staff and University staff in the form of a written report, a summary and an oral presentation.
2. Methodology There are approximately 10,000 staff at University. A contact network of approximately 200 individuals was developed from this total community population, out of which 80 individuals were chosen for interview on the following criteria: a. Maximization of geographical spacing within the University. b. Maximization of school/departmental spacing within the University. c. Individuals who may have knowledge relevant to Transition and Transition Edinburgh University. d. Individuals who may have broadly ranging impressions of Transition and Transition Edinburgh University. The interviews and surveys were conducted over a 3-week period at various locations throughout the University. The questions of the interviews focused on: f. The individual’s awareness of Climate Change, Peak Oil, Transition, Transition Edinburgh University and related initiatives (as well as perceptions of others level of awareness). g. The individual’s interests and motivators in getting involved in such initiatives (as well as perceptions of others’ interests and motivators). h. The individual’s barriers to getting involved in such initiatives (as well as perceptions of others’ barriers). i. The individual’s ideas and visions for Transition projects that they would like to see at the University. j. Appropriate avenues for communication, information sharing, and marketing of events.
3. Results of Interviews and Surveys with University Staff 3.1 Awareness University staff were questioned about their awareness of the ‘Transition Model’, Transition Edinburgh University (its history, objectives, means and projects), as well as issues like Climate Change and Peak Oil. Results show that 66% had ‘heard of’ the Transition Model and 43% had ‘heard of’ Transition Edinburgh University. Of the 43% who had heard of Transition and Transition Edinburgh University, many stated that they had a generally favorable view of the project with a few saying that they thought ‘it has great potential’. One stated: “I have the highest regard for the project... I think it is absolutely necessary and wonderful what you are doing.” Of the 57% who were not aware of Transition or Transition Edinburgh University, most also said that they had a favorable view of the project once the details were given to them. 3.2 Involvement University staff were asked about their present level of involvement with Transition Edinburgh University. On the whole, involvement of the interviewees was largely limited to occasional email contact and infrequent meetings. When asked about involvement in environmental action, the general predisposition for many interviewees seemed to be towards discussing either small-scale (individual) action or large- scale (institutional) measures; the middle ground (community-based action) was left largely out of the picture. The relevance of a ‘university community’ as a context for community- based action is a dialogue of interest that will be discussed further in Section 3.2.3. (‘Motivators’) and Section 3.2.4. (‘Barriers’). 3.3 Motivators University staff were asked to identify their biggest motivators to getting involved with community-based initiatives (such as Transition Edinburgh University) in the University community. While individual responses varied, 5 themes were identified that were held commonly among staff: concern for the environment, relevance to working lives, personal benefits, local, visible improvements for the University community and, finally, value of time and input.
3.4 Barriers University staff were asked to identify the biggest barriers that they faced to getting involved with community-based initiatives (such as Transition Edinburgh University) in the University community. While individual responses varied, 6 main themes were identified: lack of time, lack of support/infrastructure, lack of ‘relevant community’, lack of awareness, lack of motivation (apathy) and lack of clarity about Transition Edinburgh University.
4. Staff Engagement Strategy This section details recommendations for a programme of engagement that is aligned with TEU’s articulated vision for engagement, the Transition Model, and the identified awareness, interests, motivators and barriers of University staff. 4.1 Awakening Awareness and Involvement a. Awareness While you do not need every individual in a given population to hold a high level awareness of the target issue you do need a certain base, a ‘critical mass’, from which to build a movement upon. Without this critical mass a social mandate cannot be established and the movement cannot grow and be sustained. Not only has Transition Edinburgh University established a firmer sense of identity and place, but now has many successful projects underway as well as the staff and materials in place to carry over a highly successful programme of engagement. Ideally, at the end of the funding period, a high percentage of the University community will have heard of the Transition Model and will have begun to embed it into their lives. b. Involvement The identified barriers (lack of time, lack of support, lack of relevant community, lack of motivation) and motivators (relevance to working lives, personal benefit, visual improvements on the University environment), may suggest that at present there is limited interest in getting involved with community groups. The situation may well be that many staff simply do not know of the existence of these groups and do not clearly know what kind of involvement they can expect. Transition Edinburgh University is attempting to re-establish a culture of connection. This cannot be done over email or in the occasional meeting, but requires shared space and deepening relationships. It is the opinion of this report that, at present, there are a far greater number of individuals who want to get involved in some way or another than have taken the next step to doing so. 4.2 Activating Motivators a. Concern for the Environment Rather than ‘the global environment’ (something that most people can not see or feel, let alone clearly imagine) concern should be focused around the immediate environment: Scotland, Edinburgh, the University, George Square, the Chrystal MacMillan Building, etc. ‘Bringing the concern home’ puts a tangible spin on action: rather than having some abstract, unknowable, invisible result, individuals can see and feel and relate to that which they are working towards. This can be a strong motivator towards action. b. Relevance To Working Lives The importance of this motivator is built upon the understanding that staff generally see the University not as their primary community, but as their workplace. Granting that the University is organized into a largely hierarchical ‘chain of command’, activating this motivator will require working directly with those individuals who are empowered by this structure to make the decisions about how objectives are set and how operations are run in the University. By approaching them with viable, creative solutions and retaining the focus of a supportive, rather than directive initiative, Transition Edinburgh University will avoid getting overly entangled in unwanted politics. In regards to academic staff, perhaps one of the most powerful ways to make Transition Edinburgh University more relevant to their working lives will be to tie the Transition Concept (and Transition Edinburgh University projects) into potential research projects. There may also be potentials for working Transition into the curriculum of various schools (or at very least giving lectures for courses). Again, research and curriculum development will be one of the primary forms of engagement with academic staff.
c. Personal Benefits For individual staff to get involved, it will be important for them to see how it benefits them directly. The relevance of benefits will likely differ from individual to individual and role to role throughout the University. Relevant benefits may include: • Professional Development • Cost savings • Improved opportunities for research • Awards for efforts (including research, individual and group contributions, etc.) • Accreditation for learning experiences • Sustainable food and gifts • Entertainment • Networking • Increased personal time d. Local, Visible Improvements For The University Community In the long-term, staff may be most motivated by projects that provide local, iconic examples that demonstrate clear outcomes and significant impacts on the issue. Projects such as these take environmental action out of the abstract and place it into the ‘real’; they have the prospect to legitimize Transition and bring Climate Change and Peak Oil home. These projects should provide for a daily need such as food, community space, energy, travel, or information. e. Value of Time and Input Many staff at the University of Edinburgh (support and academic alike) are renowned experts and luminaries in their fields. If staff are to become involved, TEU should make attempts to open the space and provide opportunities to elicit their insight and expertise. However, if staff are to offer their expertise it will be important for them to know that their input has been listened to and regarded as valuable. TEU can do this by responding back to those who have given input to say thanks for what they have offered, by updating staff on the progress of projects that they have helped out with and by giving staff credit for their ideas. Doing these things will increase the level of ownership that staff feel with the project and send the message that TEU perceives them as valuable members of the community. 4.3 Communications In the interviews, staff were asked to reflect upon what channels of communication they listened to or paid attention to most: what channels are particularly effective, what are not and why. Fliers and posters have proven to be the least relevant avenues for communication and marketing that targets University staff. Email is by far the most common channel used for communicating information to University staff. Staff reported that they would like simple, clear, infrequent emails coming from a consistent, known and respected source. Every interviewee gave a favorable response to receiving a Transition Edinburgh University newsletter that would be sent digitally to them on the order of once per month. Most staff stated that a monthly newsletter would be an ideal form of communication and that they would be willing to pass it on to other staff. The single most effective communication tool identified by staff members was the face-to-face contact. While email, fliers, posters, MyEd etc. may be effective ways to market events, they contribute very little to changing peoples minds, behaviors, and building the connections that are fundamental aspects of a truly resilient society. 4.4 Events Events are one of (if not the single most) useful engagement tools that Transition Edinburgh University has to involve staff. They are opportunities to hit all staff motivators. It is likely that, for many staff, events will be their first face-to-face impression of Transition Edinburgh University. Foremost, it is important that events be marketed to staff with ample notice, ideally several months in advance. It is important to ensure that staff are invited, regardless of the event. Staff should be made aware that it is happening and asked to share the word with anybody who may find it relevant.
5. Conclusions University staff are necessarily a part of Transition Edinburgh University target community, particularly important stakeholders for their wealth of experience, their high degree of social influence, and their relative residential longevity in the ‘University community’. University staff represent a critical opportunity for Transition Edinburgh University to embed its objectives into the operations and culture of the University community (which will directly impact upon the lifestyles choices made by staff and students alike). Transition Edinburgh University seeks to engage with University staff in a way that is relevant to the interests, needs and practices of their working lives and is focused around generating awareness on the challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil particularly to the life and operations of the University. Transition Edinburgh University seeks to build the capacity for long-term change by strengthening the open network of common interest and idea sharing between individuals, groups, departments and disciplines across the University. The highest and most meaningful level of engagement can be achieved by simultaneously • awakening staff awareness • activating identified motivators and • working with existing barriers.